Purchasing a car from a private seller. Nightmare.

True, but when that states law makes it legal to title skip i dont see how a lawyer is going to make it wrong there otherwise

We all know what "as is" means. We have a dealer here in town everybody knows is crooked, yet he's lost two pretty big cases recently. I think the OP should at least sit down for a free consultation with an attorney. I'm certainly not going to discourage him from doing that, because I am not smart enough to know all the legal loopholes from another state and I doubt anyone else here is either. Cases are often not always as slam dunk as it may seem.